Athens, Greece

The flight to Athens was only 90 minutes from Izmir but it took 3 hours as we flew via Istanbul.  It was a smooth flight and we arrived just after the sunset.   We are hoping to save some money by using the metro in Athens rather than renting a car.  The owner of the apartment we are renting provided us with detailed directions from the airport and it was going to save us $100 CDN each way – good motivation.  We bought our metro tickets and boarded the train. I had been to Athens years ago and didn’t have very good memories of the dirty streets and metro but things have improved drastically since hosting the 2004 Olympics. 

Nice to see the city cleaned up. We found our Metro stop by using the well-marked maps on the train and enjoyed people watching between stops. Once we exited the Metro station and got outside to start our walk to the apartment we realized the streets weren’t as well marked and it was dark of course.  We have been trying to stay where the locals live and sometimes that can backfire…..like when all the streets signs are in Greek. 

We stood on the corner for a couple minutes, stumped and then decided to ask a young guy walking by if he knew the street we were looking for and  he was happy to help, spoke English AND was going the same way we were so he offered to have us follow him. We followed.  While Calvin was chatting with him, I was pulling out our directions to make sure we were on the right path and he wasn’t leading us to some undesirable neighbourhood. We have only had good luck with all the people we have met while travelling and this guy was no exception. He walked us about a half a block away from our apartment and wished us well for the rest of our trip.

The apartment is on the 6^th floor which is the seventh floor in Europe.  We had the penthouse of the apartment building but the elevator was not working when we got there! So we had to walk up the 7 flights of stairs with all of our backpacks. Calvin alone was carrying about 40 kilos while I and Noah were packing 18 kilos and Aidan had 11 kilos.  

Once we walked in to the apartment our fatigue was washed away. The first thing that caught our eye was the welcome basket that contained a bottle of wine, a fresh loaf of bread, jams and honey, chocolate and coffee ! Then I opened the fridge and saw the juice and Ouzo! Sweet! The roof top terrace had a BBQ that puts ours at home, to shame and a view of the Acropolis.

What I was most excited about though was that the owner had left out 2 Greek cookbooks and the boys decided to put a menu together that they would make for dinner one night. They are keen to cook some new recipes and once again the cooking class in Florence was money well spent! We had chosen to only spend 5 days in Athens and only visit the main important sites.

On our first day we walked to the Acropolis. It is under heavy restorative construction so the Parthenon wasn’t very photogenic but still as impressive. The boys noticed that it was larger than the two temples we visited in Paestum, Italy by counting the number of columns and found that there were 16 across rather than 14. They ARE retaining some of what they have seen! You must be wondering how these boys could still be visiting ruins and remain interested?  We do watch either travel videos or movies about ancient engineering so it’s like an I SPY type of exercise when we get to the actual site. Plus Mom and Dad are the bosses so they have no choice! Ha!  

The views were magnificent from up there so we stayed for quite a while and tried to find our apartment, which was impossible of course but was a fun exercise. After the long walk down we sauntered through the Plaka district for a real Greek feel. The Plaka is the oldest section of Athens. Most of the streets have been closed to automobile traffic and it is an area full of restaurants, jewelry stores, tourist shops, and cafes.

Though it is quite commercialized it is still a neighborhood and arguably the nicest neighbourhood in central Athens. We found a small butcher shop where we stopped in and bought some steaks for a BBQ that night.

There are plenty of museums to see in Greece but we thought we would take the boys to the War Museum to see some weapons! At 4 euros for the whole family it was a bargain. We walked around for 2 hours and the boys were as attentive as I have ever seen them.  Ancient Greek weapons right up to present day AK47s.  

Devin saw a mosaic of Alexander the Great and recognized him right away from seeing him in Italy, Turkey and now Greece.  After some photos in the courtyard beside some tanks and jets we headed to the parliament buildings to watch the changing of the guards.

As we got closer to the government buildings we could see dozens of tour bus size vehicles full of riot police wearing armour and holding shields obviously ready for anything. The government was in session and the TV cameras were waiting so it was a precautionary stance that the police were taking. There was no crowd of angry citizens gathering so we found a spot in Syntagma Square and ate our packed lunch watching the people go by.

When it was 10 minutes before the hour we headed back up to the parliament buildings to catch the bizarre pageantry of the guards. They are called Evzones and they are the elite ceremonial unit that guard the Parliament.  Potential  Evzones are identified  at the Army Recruit Training Centers during Basic Training; there is a minimum height requirement of over 6 feet to join, and they must be handsome…seriously it’s a prerequisite – I’m not sure that defines ‘elite’ but it works for me. The unit is famous for its unique traditional uniform, which has evolved from the clothes worn by the soldiers that fought the Ottomans.

The kilt they wear has 400 pleats to represent the 400 years of Turkish occupation. Who irons these things? The march style consists of marching in normal time and then at intervals, for several paces they strike the ground forcefully with their right foot and then do this slow motion foot twirl. Guards on duty perform their movements in a very slow and highly stylized manner. They switch positions with each other every fifteen minutes and remain completely motionless and at attention in the meantime. Since the Guards are required to be totally still at all times, there is one Evzone in normal fatigues uniform and police surveillance to ensure that no one approaches or harasses the Guards while on duty.

During a demonstration in front of the Parliament in 2001, a Molotov cocktail was thrown at one of the guardhouses. In no time, the wooden construction was engulfed in flames. The Evzone standing next to it didn't even blink his eyes, let alone move, until the guard in standard uniform came and gave him the order to move. With a scorched and partly smoking uniform on one side, the Evzone did.  So these guys are seriously committed! After they made their change we went up and had our pictures taken with the tall, dark and handsome fellows. It was a bit of a weird feeling, like standing next to a statue.  We found a great playground in the National Garden where the boys ran around, Dad snoozed on a park bench and I watched the other families play. 

That night we followed the apartment owner’s recommendation for a local restaurant and after many wrong turns and being sent in the wrong direction by well-meaning locals…I think… we found it ! They sell their lamb chops by the kilo so we loaded up and had a great dinner of crispy lamb chops and Greek salad.

The night of Noah’s “fake” birthday the boys decided they would run their restaurant and cook a big meal. The menu was :

·         Cheese spread  (Homemade by Noah) on warmed fresh bread

·         Olives, homemade roasted red peppers (roasted by Noah)

·         Greek Salad (made by Devin and Aidan)

·         Button onions in a honey, wine sauce (made by Noah)

·         Roast Potatoes (made by Mom)

·         Chicken Souvlaki (BBQ by Dad and Noah)

·         Caramel /Chocolate Cake (made by the bakery around the corner)

We all pitched in but Noah was really the head chef and told us what to work on. The cheese spread was 2 types of Greek cheese pureed with yogurt and it was delicious. We had a lot leftover and had it over toast for breakfast the next day. This meal was one of the tastiest and the most rewarding.

 We left Greece the next day and started it off with the local’s favorite coffee, a frappe. Coffee, water, milk and sugar all whipped up and TASTY. It is never taken to go and never gulped. It is sipped slowly while chatting with friends in a café, so when in Greece…We grabbed the backpacks and walked back to the Metro and train for the airport.  A much easier trek in daylight than in the dark.  Next stop - Egypt. We are all very excited and I am apprehensive, but things have been quieter since the revolution in January and tourists are not a target. We will be with our tour group for the entire 9 days and that makes me feel a little less anxious.